And this HB9 is excellent. Very much in the tradition of the best ones from 2012.
It is always "about to change soon" with games on Linux.
Linux gaming in the past has too much been about poor-grade clones of popular games. Now via Steam Linux is getting a lot of real games delivered, and in a manner where the publisher/developer can see the true impact of the decisions to port.
So no, Metro: LL might not change anything itself, but it is a sign that other stuff is having a real effect and that there is a pull.
I'd much rather run VMs for linux stuff than wine for windows stuff.
Now if you prefer [insert window manager of your choice] over Win7 then I get ya
I've gone deep down that hole. XMonad, fairly custom, custom keyboard layout, custom emacs... occasional light gaming is all I do now that Windows has an advantage for me personally. YMMV.
One nice thing about Ubuntu still being based on Debian is that it's easy to install enough to satisfy Steam and all the games, since Ubuntu is what they target, while leaving the Ubuntu UI off and doing whatever you want underneath.
On my Arch system, Steam works perfectly well for me.
I don't have I/O benchmarks to back that up, just anecdotes from my usage, but I'd be shocked to find that my ubuntu VM was 10% of native performance.
I don't know about LoL but you might want to give SC2 a try on wine if you haven't already.
No idea how well LoL works under wine, but DotA 2 has a native linux client. Just saying! :P
For example while Metro Last Light is going to be ported to Linux, it will be tied to Steam for no apparent reason (it doesn't strictly depend on any Steam lock-in features). I.e. it's the common urge for DRM that drives this.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2013/09/10/metro-...
Why I mentioned GOG - it's the only major distributor now who can seriously compete with Steam. And they have a clear DRM free stance unlike the later.
As for GOG, they didn't say that they don't want to support Linux. They clearly said they want to, but the way they planned it for themselves makes it complex and takes long time to research/develop. While we can disagree with GOG's approach, it's up to them to decide how to enable it. So let's wait and see what they come up with next year.
Humble Bundle didn't reach the scope of GOG yet, plus they don't even have a strict DRM free approach unfortunately. On the other hand they work on real DRM free Linux ports and they always mark which games are DRMed and which are DRM free.
To grade the situation, I'd give Steam very bad, and HB - average mark (DRM wise).
GOG has more resources to be disruptive while being completely DRM free, and to take on Steam in a serious way.
Seriously the position from GOG is plain BS. If they really wanted to support Linux, they could easily package most of their old games with Dosbox and 90% of them would run fine this way. This is the large majority of their current catalog. And I have a very hard time to believe it would be difficult to support a few key distributions. Or they could take the approach "we support only Ubuntu officially" just like Valve does, and let the Community support other distributions.
So, as much as I love what GOG does, their position regarding Linux was a great disappointment. Especially coming from a developer from Eastern Europe, where Linux is clearly stronger than in other PC markets around the world. I don't see CD project porting Witcher 2 to Linux either, and they haven't made any announcement in that direction for the upcoming Witcher 3 either.
Supporting "Non-DRM" software while running on a DRM friendly environment (Windows/Mac) is a very strange place to be, honestly. I expected way more from GOG.
This was not about DosBox games which are already playable. It was about starting support for native Linux games which is not trivial. In general I agree with you that their approach of "all or nothing" in finding a way for long term support of native games is far from perfect, but what can you do - it's their business how to do it. They listened to feedback but didn't go the iterative way.
This is why I have stopped buying the bundles, even though this one contains games I have wanted to play for a long time.
I have also told the Humble guys this, but I have gotten no response.
Nothing wrong with that, the more such games the better, but it just speaks volumes to the fact that Linux is as fringe on the desktop as it ever was.
Frankly, I don't understand why gamers who happen to use Linux and who love video games as well don't spend $500 on a Windows laptop and save themselves all these headaches.
Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4 run on Paradox's internal game engine which was ported to Linux due to Steam. I believe the same is also true for Serious Sam 3 from Croteam. And there is 4A Games who are making Metro: Last Light with their own game engine. I do not think Football manager 2014 will be using an engine like Unity either, but I do not play sports management games.
Besides, I have no headache with my Linux systems. I have no idea what you are talking about.
Linux gaming is still young, but it's picking up surprisingly quickly, really. I describe Netflix streaming as: "If you ask 'Does it have X?', the answer is no. But if you ask, 'Is there something I want to watch?', the answer is yes." Linux gaming is getting there, slowly but surely, at least if you can deal with Indie stuff. (And no hipster intended, but Indie stuff has come a long way in the last couple of years. There's a lot of stuff there that would have been at least A-grade, if not necessarily AAA, only five years ago.)